It's official. The sale of Novell to Attachmate and the related patent sale to CPTN has gone through. Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary. Just so you know.

The press release doesn't mention the restrictions on the patents required by the DOJ and the equivalent German antitrust body, so I will. Here they are. As you can see, if the plan was to use the patents as part of what Barnes & Noble has just called Microsoft's
anticompetitive scheme, that dream withered considerably. But Attachmate gets some patents and some copyrights, so if they plan to be bad, they may try. Or they may just sell the assets off to someone else even more willing.

A sad goodbye to the Novell that was. You really let the community down.

WALTHAM, Mass., April 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL), the leader in intelligent workload management, today announced that it has completed its previously announced merger, whereby Attachmate Corporation acquired Novell for $6.10 per share in cash. Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the parent company of Attachmate Corporation.

Novell also announced that immediately prior to the completion of its merger with Attachmate Corporation, it had completed its previously announced sale of certain identified issued patents and patent applications to CPTN Holdings LLC for $450 million in cash.

As a result of the merger, Novell's common stock will cease trading on The NASDAQ Global Select Market at the close of business on April 27, 2011, and Novell expects to deregister and suspend its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

BNY Mellon Shareowner Services has been appointed to serve as the agent for payment of the merger consideration to Novell's stockholders, and will promptly mail to stockholders of record instructions on how to surrender their stock certificates and receive payment for their shares. If a stockholder's shares are held by a broker, bank or other nominee and is not promptly provided by them with instructions on how to receive payment for the shares, the stockholder should contact them directly for such instructions.

About Novell

Novell, Inc., a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

Update: Attachmate's Chairman and CEO Jeff Hawn has put out a statement. He thinks it's great news:

Special Announcement

THE ATTACHMATE GROUP ACQUIRES NOVELL, INC

Dear Valued Customer,

I am pleased to inform you that today we announced the completion of the acquisition of Novell, Inc. We are now four brands united under a single holding company named "The Attachmate Group" and are one of the largest, privately-held enterprise software holding companies in the market today. Our principal holdings include Attachmate, NetIQ, Novell and SUSE, and you will continue to know us by these four powerful brands.

I hope you share my enthusiasm for our combined organizations' exciting future, as we believe this is great news. Allow me to take this opportunity to explain what The Attachmate Group means to you, and how our newly combined organization is designed to better meet your complex IT requirements.

Products, Services, and Scale: The Attachmate Group product families now include complementary solutions that range across asset and business service management; open source; end user computing and collaboration; host connectivity and legacy modernization; security, identity and compliance management; virtualization and cloud computing; and more. We now bring to bear richer solutions, more talent and expertise, and an expanded field presence to our customers worldwide.

Commitment to Innovation and Lifecycle Support: The Attachmate Group companies are committed to supporting solutions throughout their product lifecycles. Our philosophy is to create options for customers to move forward, not force them to abandon products that have become critical to their operation and success. We understand that our customers' success depends on having the flexibility to evolve and adopt new technologies at their own pace and cadence. We intend to support that need.

Current Agreements: I can assure you that this transaction does not alter our obligations to honor all contractual commitments. This includes maintenance and technical support for all our business units' respective products. Your existing contracts remain with the business unit entity named in the contract. We continue to execute on each business unit's product development efforts and are committed to delivering exceptional service and support to our customers.

Business As Usual: The processes you have been using for order placement, sales support, and technical support remain the same. Please continue to do business with us as you have in the past. We understand that you may be a customer of more than one company within our portfolio. Please continue to work with your separate contacts from each of our companies. We will continue to keep you apprised of any contact changes made that may impact you directly to ensure you have the necessary information you need to be successful.

If you have questions or feedback at this time, please contact your account manager. I want to thank you personally for your ongoing business and express my deep appreciation for your continued confidence and support.